Blair warns France of cold war with US

Tony Blair yesterday warned France and other critics of the US-led war in Iraq that any attempt to create "rival centres of power" to compete with the United States would restore the disastrous divisions of the cold war era.

"If we do not deal with the world on the basis of partnership between Europe and America, we will in a sense put back into the world divisions we wanted to get rid of when the cold war finished. I think that would be a disaster," the prime minister declared.

Mr Blair flies to Moscow today for crisis talks with President Vladimir Putin as four European Union states, including France and Germany, meet in Brussels to discuss strengthening military ties. Mr Blair was not invited.

Insisting that France and Britain still have many common interests, he warned that the fundamental question now is whether the world develops in what would "rapidly become rival centres of power".

At his first Downing Street press conference since the conquest of Iraq, Mr Blair also told anti-war critics not to "gloat" or "jump around gleefully" because coalition forces have so far failed to unearth the weapons of mass destruction which were meant to justify the invasion.

"I remain confident that they will be found," he told reporters. Up to 1,000 sites -many revealed since the invasion - would have to be painstakingly examined after years of active concealment. Jack Straw struck a similar note of caution when he made a Commons statement to MPs.

Dismissing the internal damage done within Labour's ranks - "the series of mass resignations never occurred in reality at all" - Mr Blair also expressed dismay that anyone should suggest that evidence about the Iraqi stockpile might be faked.

"There is nobody in any part of my administration, or working for any of our services, that would ever agree to such a thing," he said while admitting that details of the "indepen dent verification" process is still being discussed with the US and UN.

Mr Blair insisted that President Bush would honour his promises on the Middle East road map, despite Israeli predictions to the contrary.

"President Bush himself is completely committed to taking the Middle East peace process forward," he said. "I would take the words of President Bush, they are good enough for me, and I think they are good enough for you."

Mr Blair remained doggedly upbeat about the conduct of the war and only slightly less confident than a month ago about the prospect for democratic civilian rule in Iraq. "I would hazard a guess that the vast majority of people, given a free choice, whatever their religious faith, want to live in a state that guarantees their freedom and democracy," he said.

He admitted that the US prison camp for Afghan detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is "an unsatisfactory situation," but explained that "as we get more information about what al-Qaida is up to we are able to check it with the people" held there.

On attitudes towards Iran and Syria, Iraq's neighbours, the prime minister was conciliatory - urging both to cooperate and not to seek to destabilise Baghdad - while making it plain they face close scrutiny. Supporting terrorism, as Syria had done, "has got to stop".

Asked directly what message he might have for Saddam Hussein, widely assumed to be in hiding, Mr Blair said it had been on his mind a great deal, but pointedly declined to urge him to give himself up - a hint that the fallen dictator can expect no mercy.

In a Commons statement, the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, admitted that "isolated pockets" of resistance remained from pro-Saddam forces. As normality returns in British-controlled Basra, he predicted that "for all the immense challenges that lie ahead one thing I know for certain: Iraq's future will be better than its past".